5-16-2023 7:08am

Roscoe Middle Schooler Alicia Wallin gets a hole-in-one for the first time

Alicia Wallin shows her proud smile after accomplishing something very rare in the game of golf.

According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds of the average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. Well, I don’t believe they have ever met Alicia Wallin. The 8th grader from Roscoe Middle School scored her first ace on Saturday, May 13, 2023.

Using a 9 iron, her shot landed on the green, took two small bounces, and found the bottom of the cup at the Atwood Homestead course, according to her dad and caddy Carl Wallin.

Number 7 at Atwood Homestead plays anywhere from 114 to 201 yards, depending on your tee of choice. Alicia measured Saturday’s ace at 117 yards.

When asked how long she normally hits her 9 iron, she confidently and without hesitation said, “125 but I was hitting it shorter” during Saturday’s practice round for a WPGA event in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday. Sunday's event got canceled due to the weather in the area.

Alicia has been a stalwart in the Youth/Junior golf scene for a few years now and has aged up to the WPGA and the American Junior Golf Association tours from her previous playing on the PGA Jr League.

Alicia has been playing golf since she was 4 years old, picking up the game around Father’s Day when everyone else around her picked up clubs.

This summer Alicia is also preparing for her upcoming freshman golf season at Hononegah.

How rare is a hole-in-one you may ask?

Odds of a hole-in-one (according to PGA.com):

Tour player making an ace: 3,000 to 1
Low-handicapper making an ace: 5,000 to 1

Each year there are 450 million rounds of golf played in the U.S., which is approximately 25,000-30,000 per course. Each course reports between 10-15 aces per year. Basically, that means a hole-in-one is scored once in every 3,500 rounds.
Only 1-2% of golfers score an ace in a year. The average number of years of playing golf for a player before making an ace is 24.
16% of holes-in-one are made by women and the average age of those women is 55.
LPGA Golf Professional Pamela Saladino, who coaches Alicia, mentioned to her that she is one of very few students she has ever had that scored an ace.

Thank you to Alicia, Lori, and Carl Wallin for the information and images used in the story.

Thank You to PGA.com for use of their stats and information for the story.